How To Manage Your Time Without Losing Your Mind

Effective Time Management Advice

In today's busy world, you are not alone if you find yourself wondering how to manage your time. Between the demands of work, schooling, family or all three, it can often feel as if time for you gets forced to the bottom of the pile. Fortunately, there are some sound and even fairly easy tips for time management. The trick often lies in prioritizing activities. Learning how to manage your time and even coming up with ways to set aside a few minutes for yourself can be done.

The importance of learning to manage your time can be rather profound. Its benefits, according to Dartmouth's Academic Skills Center are many, and include giving yourself more time to do what you want, motivating yourself to do what must be done, avoiding cramming behaviors and even giving yourself a viable way for reducing anxiety. The basic concept is that when you learn how to manage your time more effectively, you can help reduce a little clutter and stress in your life along the way without shirking important projects and obligations to do so.

There is a lot of advice out there about time management skills, tricks and tips. Much of it, in fact, comes from the university community. Schools are constantly on the look out for bits of advice to pass on to their students to help them manage their time, balance their schedules and still keep a little room for self-enjoyment in the mix. The University of Minnesota Duluth, for example, urges its students to "make room for entertainment and relaxation."

When schedules are too busy and too bogged down with nothing but work, students and workers can become stressed. This can lead to a variety of potential health conditions and actually hold up production even further. With this in mind, the importance of scheduling balance is generally brought to the forefront when time management tips are given out. As the University of Minnesota points out, "You need to have a social life, yet, you need to have a balance in your life."

Scheduling is a big component when it comes to how to manage your time. GetMoreDone.com, for example, suggests that people should schedule out the things they need to get accomplished on any given day. The idea here is to provide an outline of what needs to be done and an estimate of how much time it should take. This can help ensure that important projects or tasks are not forgotten along the way. Time estimates, too, can be beneficial in ensuring that everything necessary can be done. It is wise, however, to make sure estimates are realistic.

There is a danger involved with over-scheduling. When you take things too far, and make unrealistic goals, for example, your efforts at managing time could turn into more stress. The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a study that shows over-scheduling can increase stress, anxiety and physical complaints. While this study was conducted about over-scheduled children, it makes a certain level of sense that it could extend to anyone activities are overbooked.

Since the potential pitfalls of too much stress include such things as headaches, ulcers and even high blood pressure, it's not a bad idea to avoid allowing schedules to create stress in the first place.

Virginia Tech's Cook Counseling Center suggests a different path for managing your time. Rather than just schedule individual days, counselors advise making schedules for short and long-term projects and commitments. The idea here is to keep up with what has to be done on any given day without losing track of "bigger picture" projects. This can be very helpful for those who have to handle a lot of ongoing and future commitments.

Prioritizing projects, activities and other things that need to go on your "to do" list is advice that comes from MindTools.com. This site suggests that making sure the absolute must-do’s are done first. The idea is to make sure the most important projects are tackled and don't get set aside for other less vital tasks. It is also quite helpful for making sure that the most vital tasks at hand are attended to first. This can be useful especially if unexpected interruptions or schedule changes have to take place.

British-based Total Success recommends learning how to manage your time by learning to identify and eliminate those things that zap it away from you. "Time stealers" at work, and even in personal life, include such things as interruptions, meetings, tasks that were not delegated, crisis management, lack of planning and even the inability to say "no."

The idea behind the suggestions is that if you can identify and work to avoid and/or eliminate some of the time stealers, you will likely have more time and energy to dedicate to the projects that simply have to be done. As a result, your time management might even pay off with more time for yourself.

Learning to say "no" is perhaps one of the hardest things the time-challenged need to address effectively. Top7Business.com even has a full page dedicated to the many ways people can learn how to say no effectively. The benefit here is being able to identify and say no to additional projects or tasks that are beyond your ability to complete within the necessary timeframe. Saying no can be tough, but it can be done. It is important, however, to consider what you are saying no to carefully. This can be especially so in the business world. "Calculate the risks of saying 'No,' " the site recommends.

Many sources point out poor organization as one of the thieves of time. Top7Business.com, for example, suggests making sure working areas are well organized for the tasks at hand. This can save "stolen time" in looking for tools necessary to complete projects.

People should create their own time management plans that are flexible. The idea is to put forth personal effort to make sure a schedule works effectively for you, not someone else. If all else fails, there are experts in the field of time management who are willing to step in and help. These consultants can offer advice on everything from scheduling and clutter reduction to better organization techniques and beyond. Some even specialize in helping people learn to keep their obligations realistic.

Learning how to manage your time without losing your mind can be an effective way to make sure what needs to get done does get done. It is important to balance the demands of life with the needs you have, as well. Basic tips for managing your time can go a long way. Still, a little bit of built-in flexibility is never a bad idea either.

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